The Eruw

A cabalistic legend from Nikolsburg

[The German
original, here translated by Mark Tritsch, appeared in Hickl's illustrierter
jüdischer Volkskalendar, 1926/27, Brünn, a few years after the last great fire
in Nikolsburg]

As the centuries old roofs of Nikolsburg burned like dry tinder during the
fire catastrophe still all too fresh in everyone's memory, there was one house,
covered with wooden tiles like all the others, that remained quite unaffected.
It really seemed like a miracle, and people could only shake their heads in
wonder...

Now, that house stood in the Quergasse, at the point where people used to
pass from the Jewish into the Christian town, and there is a wonderful legend
connected with it which deserves to be brought back out of the mists of time and
reawakened to new life. It involves none other than the famous kabalist Modche
Benett, who was Moravian Chief Rabbi at the time of which this story tells, and
whose memory is garlanded with many charming tales and legends. He must have
been a quite extraordinary man, part scholar and part sorcerer. He died in
Lichtenstadt near Karlsbad where he was taking the waters, and lies buried in
Nikolsburg. A massive gravestone there reminds later generations of his fame.

Once upon a time, the Jewish community decided that it wanted to set up an
Eruw at the house on the Quergasse which is the subject of this tale. An Eruw
was a special chain, intended to remind the pious of how far they were permitted
to go abroad on a Saturday without infringing the law of the Sabbath. However,
the plan could not be carried out because the owner of the house, the honorable
master butcher Topolanski, a Christian, stubbornly refused to allow the chain to
be set up. This was not so much due to any scruples of his own as because of his
neighbors, who objected to the presence of this symbol of an alien belief in
their proximity.

The governor of the town, to whom both parties appealed for arbitration,
decided in favor of the house owner. After that, there was only one person who
could still help, and that was Mordechai Benett, who was the object of almost
idolizing veneration by both Jews and Christians and whose judgement was
accepted unconditionally by all.

As a deputation of the community elders entered his study, Benett sat bent
over an enormous folio deep in thought. Becoming aware of their presence, he
asked curtly in his usual manner what they wanted. Hearing the litany of
complaints which now poured forth over the villany of Master Topolanski, he
answered again in the same taciturn way, assuring his listeners that he would
soon attend to solving the problem...

And indeed the next day saw this tall, patriarchal figure making his lonely
way through the streets and alleys of Jewish Nikolsburg, on his head the
imposing bearskin hat, in his hand the staff of ivory. Before him went his
servant Perez, anxiously rushing from corner to corner to make sure that no
person of the female sex would appear on the street. Ever since Modche Benett
had reached the age of the Psalmist, he had carefully avoided any contact with
the opposite sex and had even left his own wife, living apart from her in
another house.

Master Topolanski was sitting in front of his house relaxing and smoking his
pipe, after completing the day's work. As he saw the Rabbi coming, he rose and
went a few steps towards him. After all, it was a great distinction when this
famous man paid him the honour of a visit! Modche Benett explained in his brief
manner the reason for his coming. Master Topolanski responded with a bewildered
shaking of his head and a torrent of objections: he himself was "not an enemy of
the Jews", but "the wicked neighbors will complain" and he "wanted to live in
peace with all". And anyway, the authorities had decided against the whole
thing, he added.

The Rabbi listened quietly then replied: "As the authorities have decided in
your favor, no-one can make any complaint against you or force you to comply
with any wish of mine. But pay heed to the words of a man who has already seen
eighty years sweep over this wretched earth. The justice of men is a fairground
comedy. Enthroned above us all there is a supreme judge, for whom these childish
games are at most the cause of a weary smile. Indeed all the different religious
confessions, which divide pitiable humans against each other and fill them with
blind hatred for one another, are his children, all equally dear and valued in
his fatherly heart. And so you need not be afraid of complying with my request.
Your God will not be angry as a result. And furthermore, you and your
descendants will be richly rewarded: I shall utter a blessing on your house
which will for all time protect it from fire". The deep earnest with which
Modche spoke and his flashing eyes made the greatest impression upon the Master.
He had heard too many wondrous things of the Rabbi, not to believe him now...

After a moment's silence he agreed to comply with the request and some days
later the Eruw was set up. And what Benett had promised came true. When a
terrible fire destroyed much of Nikolsburg in the 1830s, that house was
protected from the flames. Time and again since then fire has broken out and
destroyed part of the ancient town! In the year 1866, as the Prussians occupied
Nikolsburg and Bismarck negotiated peace with Austria there... In the seventies
and eighties of the nineteenth century... And so on decade after decade! In the
confusion of flames, smoke and rubble that so often fell on Nikolsburg, that
house always remained unaffected. And once again during the last fire, the
biggest ever in Nikolsburg, the flames seemed to be brought to a halt before
they reached that house, as if by some unimaginable sorcery.

Today, people come from far and wide to see this great wonder with their own
eyes. For the calm rationalist it may be just a case of so many coincidences,
but for one trembling before the mysteries of life it seems to be one more proof
that much more lies between heaven and earth than can be dreamt of in our dry
school wisdom...

[The house of which this story tells was demolished during the communist
era. M.T.]